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Kettlebell Iron Cardio

I have been doing Iron Cardio for many months now and have been enjoying this CPSq+PU training a lot (and I have made progress) but the structured guy in me is freaking out a bit because all of this intuitive training and for now I am switching to a “real” program like Built Strong to calm myself down.
 
sammal said:
I have been doing Iron Cardio for many months now and have been enjoying this CPSq+PU training a lot (and I have made progress) but the structured guy in me is freaking out a bit because all of this intuitive training and for now I am switching to a “real” program like Built Strong to calm myself down.
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It‘s never bad to get some variety into the routine. Dan John always says that you have to cruise through the year (Easy Strength, Iron Cardio, A+A work…) and sometime you challenge yourself (10000 Swings challenge, …) or you peak for events.
Means that you go for 8-12 weeks of Built Strong, drink your protein shakes, eat your steaks, get some pounds of muscle and then come back to the cruising of the Iron Cardio. Enjoy the ride!
 
It's on... My first day of Iron Cardio. 30 min. travelling 2s with a single 20 kg. bell. Doing single bell work again felt almost weird. And I surely have a strength imbalance on my press that I haven't noticed much running double 16s.

I was tired by the end of it, but in a very different way than when running Maximorum. Did 32 sets, with a pretty steady heart rate in the 90-110 range. It'll take me a few more goes at this to find a rhythm of some sort, and get used to working with singles again. Plan is 3 sessions of IC + 2 Q&D, along with ~20km. of running each week.
 
ipetter said:
It's on... My first day of Iron Cardio. 30 min. travelling 2s with a single 20 kg. bell. Doing single bell work again felt almost weird. And I surely have a strength imbalance on my press that I haven't noticed much running double 16s.

I was tired by the end of it, but in a very different way than when running Maximorum. Did 32 sets, with a pretty steady heart rate in the 90-110 range. It'll take me a few more goes at this to find a rhythm of some sort, and get used to working with singles again. Plan is 3 sessions of IC + 2 Q&D, along with ~20km. of running each week.
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Great work.

32 sets total (right = set 1, left = set 2, etc.)—correct?
 
A hard workout today... 40 min. of classic + snatches with 20 kg. Found a nice rhythm to this today, taking about 1 min. to complete two sets (R+L), followed by around another minute of rest. Average HR of 101 and it didn't feel like a workout. More like manual labour done over time. My muscles were getting fatigued as time went on, and there was a little bit of sweat - but not the kind of big HR spikes and feeling out of breath that longer sets or complexes will dish out. I like this!

44 sets and 176 reps today. Now I'll shut up and get back to training.
 
Hello, I'm new to the forum.

I'd like to pose a question because I'm not sure I've grasped it correctly.

I'm interested in the approach of combining strength and aerobic training. In that regard, I find "Iron cardio" intriguing.

I understand that if we want to progress or delve deeper into the aerobic aspect using "iron cardio", we could use lighter kettlebells, longer rest periods between sets, or both, ensuring we don't exceed 140-150 bpm.

My question is, how do you believe is the best way to progress in the strength phase? By increasing repetitions using the "travelling" method with lower weights? Or by directly increasing the weight and ensuring rest since with more weight, your heart rate will rise more after each "kettlebell complex"?

Thanks and best regards.
 
shaydund said:
Hello, I'm new to the forum.

I'd like to pose a question because I'm not sure I've grasped it correctly.

I'm interested in the approach of combining strength and aerobic training. In that regard, I find "Iron cardio" intriguing.

I understand that if we want to progress or delve deeper into the aerobic aspect using "iron cardio", we could use lighter kettlebells, longer rest periods between sets, or both, ensuring we don't exceed 140-150 bpm.

My question is, how do you believe is the best way to progress in the strength phase? By increasing repetitions using the "travelling" method with lower weights? Or by directly increasing the weight and ensuring rest since with more weight, your heart rate will rise more after each "kettlebell complex"?

Thanks and best regards.
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Exactly how to structure your IC work will reveal itself as you perform the protocol.

What is your experience with kettlebells?
What weight KBs are you planning or what is your MP rep max at a couple of different weights?
 
Brett Jones said:
Exactly how to structure your IC work will reveal itself as you perform the protocol.

What is your experience with kettlebells?
What weight KBs are you planning or what is your MP rep max at a couple of different weights?
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My experiencie is about 2 years, but more with dumbells and barbells

I can use 2x24 kg kettlebell for clean & squat & press easily EMOM for "long time".
I can use 2x24 kg kettlebell for 2*(clean & squat & press) EMOM for about 30 minutes (high intensity which equals about 150 mean bpm and > 170 peak bpm).
I can us2 2x32 kg kettlebell for clean & squat & press or push press EMOM for about 20 - 30 minutes (high intensity which equals about 150 mean bpm and > 170 peak bpm).

My goal would be to capable of double kettlebell with 40 kg and easy 48 kg one kettlebell.

Thanks for your time.
 
shaydund said:
My experiencie is about 2 years, but more with dumbells and barbells

I can use 2x24 kg kettlebell for clean & squat & press easily EMOM for "long time".
I can use 2x24 kg kettlebell for 2*(clean & squat & press) EMOM for about 30 minutes (high intensity which equals about 150 mean bpm and > 170 peak bpm).
I can us2 2x32 kg kettlebell for clean & squat & press or push press EMOM for about 20 - 30 minutes (high intensity which equals about 150 mean bpm and > 170 peak bpm).

My goal would be to capable of double kettlebell with 40 kg and easy 48 kg one kettlebell.

Thanks for your time.
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Looks like you are off to a good start—work the variations in the protocol and keep us posted.
 
shaydund said:
Today i was very tired and my work out was clean & push press, 28 minutes.
2 clean & 4 push press EMOM with 2x24 kg KB.
Average bpm: 127
Maximum bpm: 166


For me this workout was more "aerobic" oriented than strenght oriented.
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Do you have the ebook?
 
shaydund said:
No.

I have read from the internet but not the book :_(
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well lucky you @shaydund for the next 7 hours - it's on sale at the link below.

strongandfit.com

Iron Cardio E-Book by Brett Jones

Develop IRON Cardio With A Step-By-Step Process Using Kettlebells, A Rock-Solid Workout Plan, And Excellent Coaching From Brett Jones on this MUST HAVE E-BOOK! Brett Jones is a strength & conditioning professional with over 25 Years experience and is also kettlebell certified under the legendary...
strongandfit.com strongandfit.com

but for around 20 bucks i'd jump on this deal, right now.

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and you May or May not be able to get an additional discount if you use code FANEMAIL50 at checkout.

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I bought the book the other day and read through it. Maybe it is a little too 'do what feels right' for me. I just want to program it out a little.

What does a week or a month of this look like?

I am planning on doing it with doubles. 3 days per week or even every other day. Probably Su Tu Th. I want to have sort of a heavy, medium, light day. So squat being the heavy, press being the medium, and the 1's being the light.

a) I was thinking of laddering up in say Press on Tu, Doing 1's or 2's on Th, and laddering up Squat on Su. So essentially it would be Press, 1's, Squat, repeat...

The idea here would be to do 1,2,3,+ until the rep got hard, then repeat the ladders till the time ended. Kind of like Total Tension (I wasn't big on pyramiding up and down in Total Tension). This would also give me some progression as I pushed to improve the reps ever couple of weeks.


b) I had also considered maybe doing something like Press, 1's, Squat, 2's, Press, 1's, Squat, 2's... repeat...

Any thoughts on which would be better? I have no idea how hard doing say 2's would be instead of 1's...
 
solarbear said:
I bought the book the other day and read through it. Maybe it is a little too 'do what feels right' for me. I just want to program it out a little.

What does a week or a month of this look like?

I am planning on doing it with doubles. 3 days per week or even every other day. Probably Su Tu Th. I want to have sort of a heavy, medium, light day. So squat being the heavy, press being the medium, and the 1's being the light.

a) I was thinking of laddering up in say Press on Tu, Doing 1's or 2's on Th, and laddering up Squat on Su. So essentially it would be Press, 1's, Squat, repeat...

The idea here would be to do 1,2,3,+ until the rep got hard, then repeat the ladders till the time ended. Kind of like Total Tension (I wasn't big on pyramiding up and down in Total Tension). This would also give me some progression as I pushed to improve the reps ever couple of weeks.


b) I had also considered maybe doing something like Press, 1's, Squat, 2's, Press, 1's, Squat, 2's... repeat...

Any thoughts on which would be better? I have no idea how hard doing say 2's would be instead of 1's...
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You could do Rep Ladder—Squats for heavy, Rep Ladder—Press for medium, and Classic for light. All with doubles. Figure out how to vary your volume (either by sets or by time) and work that for 6-12 weeks. See how it goes for you.
 
First IC session done. I wrote down the parameters. What should I focus on so that I don't have to count it all?
It was supposed to be simple.

KB20
Clean, press, squat
40 sets
120 reps
Time: 18:55

2400kg
6,3 reps /min
126,3kg /min

Next time I will grab 24kg.
 
taro said:
First IC session done. I wrote down the parameters. What should I focus on so that I don't have to count it all?
It was supposed to be simple.

KB20
Clean, press, squat
40 sets
120 reps
Time: 18:55

2400kg
6,3 reps /min
126,3kg /min

Next time I will grab 24kg.
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taro

The metrics you track are up to you.

I only track time, number of sets and the variation performed.
 
solarbear said:
I bought the book the other day and read through it. Maybe it is a little too 'do what feels right' for me. I just want to program it out a little.

What does a week or a month of this look like?

I am planning on doing it with doubles. 3 days per week or even every other day. Probably Su Tu Th. I want to have sort of a heavy, medium, light day. So squat being the heavy, press being the medium, and the 1's being the light.

a) I was thinking of laddering up in say Press on Tu, Doing 1's or 2's on Th, and laddering up Squat on Su. So essentially it would be Press, 1's, Squat, repeat...

The idea here would be to do 1,2,3,+ until the rep got hard, then repeat the ladders till the time ended. Kind of like Total Tension (I wasn't big on pyramiding up and down in Total Tension). This would also give me some progression as I pushed to improve the reps ever couple of weeks.


b) I had also considered maybe doing something like Press, 1's, Squat, 2's, Press, 1's, Squat, 2's... repeat...

Any thoughts on which would be better? I have no idea how hard doing say 2's would be instead of 1's...
Click to expand...
Do you have multiple double weights (double 24, 28, 32 etc...)?

Set a baseline with performing a few sessions of Classic (c+p+sq) and Traveling 2s for 20 min and see how many sets you can accomplish in that time frame.

I would include a single bell day in the mix to better rotate intensity.

Once you have the baseline then rep ladders and more intense variations can be scheduled.
 
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